Ron Kirk, who is campaigning to be the first
African-American Senator from the state of Texas, has come under fire from the
state’s Attorney General and the state’s largest law enforcement group.
Attorney General General John Cornyn has criticized
Kirk for attending the Hip-Hop Summit in Dallas with D.O.C. and Russell Simmons.
Both Kirk and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations Of Texas circulated
a press release calling for Kirk to renounce his affiliation with the D.O.C.,
due to the D.O.C.’s past affiliation with N.W.A.
Coryn also criticized Russell Simmons in an email
with a photograph attached of Kirk shaking handing with Simmons. Above the photo
was an explicative filled caption of Simmons defending "Gangsta Rap."
Speaking to a conference of hundreds of mayors
and town leaders at a conference, Kirk said "The question you have to ask
them is why they’re doing this. I think they are doing everything they can to
very subtly try to frighten people away from looking at my background and my
credentials and trying to interject racial politics in a negative way into this
campaign."
Kirk defended his appearance, noting that the
event was nothing more than a way to entice younger people to register to vote.
"The only thing they were encouraging young
people to do is go vote," Kirk said. "And I would hope that, whether
in an overt or non-subtle way, that John Cornyn isn’t suggesting that these
young people don’t have a right to be interested in the political life of our
communities."